Schweinsteiger steals Wolfsburg's thunder
Friday, August 20, 2010
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Bastian Schweinsteiger struck at the death to get FC Bayern München's title defence off to a positive start, with Steve McClaren's first game as coach of VfL Wolfsburg ending in a 2-1 defeat.
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Bastian Schweinsteiger struck in added time to give FC Bayern München a 2-1 win in the first game of the new Bundesliga season, after Edin Džeko had cancelled out Thomas Müller's opener for the hosts.
Schweinsteiger slid in at the far post to convert Franck Ribéry's cross from the left a minute into stoppage time to give Louis van Gaal's men all three points, though Steve McClaren could consider himself unlucky to have come away from his first game as the Wolves' coach with nothing.
Bayern made a fine start, a neat one-two with Toni Kroos ending with Müller volleying left-footed past Diego Benaglio on nine minutes as the 2008/09 champions barely laid a glove on their hosts before the interval. However, Wolfsburg emerged refreshed after the break, and substitute Zvezdjan Misimović set up Džeko's headed equaliser with a 55th-minute corner.
Delighted to have won the game, Müller was still mystified by the way his side lost their way in the second half. "It is inexplicable, what happened in the first ten minutes after the break," he said. "We did not deserve to win the game, but we kept trying until the end." Misimović added ruefully: "Our second half was better; in the first we were too anxious, but in the end Bayern showed their class and made the difference."